# Some Light COVID News for a change -- Name That Drug ! Not Bamlanivimab!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-light-covid-news-for-a-change-name-that-drug-not-bamlanivimab/925228>\
**Category:** The Quarantine Zone\
**Tags:** covid-quarantine\
**Created:** [November 10, 2020, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-light-covid-news-for-a-change-name-that-drug-not-bamlanivimab/925228 "2020-11-10T15:33:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2020, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-light-covid-news-for-a-change-name-that-drug-not-bamlanivimab/925228/21 "2020-11-11T22:32:39Z")

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> [@Courk](#):
>
> Here’s more on Wikipedia about it:

So we can see ~ANgiogenesis Inhibitor, VIral, Monoclonal AntiBody, which is ~ANIVIMAB.

What is BAML ? Bacterial Mammalian breast tumor? Bacterial Viral doesn’t make sense to me, but what do I know?

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**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2020, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-light-covid-news-for-a-change-name-that-drug-not-bamlanivimab/925228/22 "2020-11-12T00:01:50Z")

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Obviously it’s from “sweet home AMBLBAML.”

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**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2020, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-light-covid-news-for-a-change-name-that-drug-not-bamlanivimab/925228/23 "2020-11-12T00:27:02Z")

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> [@Melbourne](#):
>
> So we can see ~ANgiogenesis Inhibitor, VIral, Monoclonal AntiBody, which is ~ANIVIMAB.
> 
> What is BAML ? Bacterial Mammalian breast tumor? Bacterial Viral doesn’t make sense to me, but what do I know?

[The prefixes have no specific meaning](https://www.pharmacytimes.com/contributor/jeffrey-fudin/2015/08/monoclonal-antibodies-how-to-navigate-the-naming-scheme); they just have to distinguish the drug from other drugs.

So it was chosen for beauty and uniqueness, I guess.

(As someone who’s taken nivolumab and ipilumab, and is gonna try atezolizumab for the first time tomorrow, I really didn’t find the name all that weird!)

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**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2020, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-light-covid-news-for-a-change-name-that-drug-not-bamlanivimab/925228/24 "2020-11-12T01:42:44Z")

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Am sure that our pommie friend would make a play for:

Antivirus McVirusface

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**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2020, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-light-covid-news-for-a-change-name-that-drug-not-bamlanivimab/925228/25 "2020-11-12T04:29:51Z")

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ROTFL!

I used to make a little extra pocket change doing market research for new-drug brand names.

Those monoclonal antibodies are a whole new language all their own.

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